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PESHAWAR, Aug 12: The lack of interest by the leaders of both factions of Pakistan Muslim League -- N and Q -- to strengthen their parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has caused unrest among the workers of both the parties.

Many disappointed workers of both the parties in the province are likely to join other political parties, according to sources.

The senior workers of N and Q, during background interviews, said that indifference of their leaders could be judged from the fact that they didn’t nominate any candidate for the upcoming by-elections in the province.

PML-N has decided to support JUI-F while PML-Q has assured ANP of its support in the by-elections in the province.

PML-Q has already faced problems as many of its active members in different divisions of the province have said goodbye to party and the remaining workers are also disappointed with the indifferent behaviour of their leaders. The PML-N also seems to lose ground in the province.The workers said that leaders of both the parties didn’t show any interest in the province during the last general elections as they focused only on Punjab.

The central leaders of PML-Q have not addressed even a single public meeting in Peshawar during the past one decade. They came only for offering condolence on the demise of a few prominent leaders of different parities, sources said.

However, PML-Q provincial president Intikhab Chamkani said that their party made its presence felt in many districts by fielding candidates on different seats during the last general elections and got a reasonable number of votes.

“Many of our workers wanted to contest by-elections but leadership didn’t permit them for unknown reasons. I also asked them to avoid contesting this time as there are little chances to win in the prevailing situation,” he said and added that one should think realistically.

When referred to the cold response of his party leadership towards the problems of Pakhtuns, he said that it was also felt by workers and he apprised the leaders of it.

“Now it is the duty of PML-N to give attention to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it has government in the centre and can do a lot for the welfare of people,” Mr Chamkani said.

He said that people of the province suffered heavily due to militancy and flash floods in 2010 and it was duty of the federal government to rehabilitate the affected people and revive the economy.

He said that Nawaz Sharif was also not interested in the province otherwise he would have appointed at least two ministers or advisers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so that they could resolve the problems of people.

Similarly, PML-N president Mian Nawaz Sharif has also ignored his party workers in the province and maintained his contact only with few leaders like Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Amir Muqam, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan and Pir Sabir Shah.

A leader of PML-N said that workers were disappointed as they had sought votes from people in the general elections and were expecting that federal government would help them to resolve their problems but to no avail.

“There is no representative of the party to take up problems of people with officials of government departments like Wapda, PTCL and SNGPL etc in the province,” he said.

He said that the party should form a powerful committee to keep liaison with centre in connection with problems of workers otherwise PML-N would be unable to maintain its vote bank in the province.

PML-N provincial general secretary Rehmat Salam Khattak, when contacted, said that his party had announced support to JUI-F candidates in the by-elections. “We also have potential candidates in all the districts, who remained runner up on at least 21 constituencies but the party did not issue tickets to them,” he said.

About the party’s future line of action, he avoided saying anything. However, he said that government was trying to overcome energy crisis and initiate mega projects for benefit of people.

Mr Khattak said that his party was in a position to form government in the province but it honoured the mandate of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to strengthen democracy.

However, he said that his party was yet to issue any fresh instructions to the local leaders about the current issues.